I like that Sonja Johanson says MFA courses don't teach craft and we can find craft classes on our own without paying tons of money for a college degree. I spent many years studying the writing craft in classes at John C. Campbell Folk School and at Tri-County Community College as well as other workshops and classes in the region. Most of the good poets I know have done the same.

Monday, November 28, 2016

It will soon be time to start scheduling 2017 classes for Writers Circle around the Table.

Because our writing program, NCWN-West will hold a writers conference on Saturday, May 6, in Sylva, NC at the library, we will not begin our classes until June.

We will hold at least one class each month from June through September. We might hold an online course this year. If you are new to Writers Circle as I know some of you are, we bring in poets and writers who teach three hour workshops usually on Saturdays.

You can see on this site some of the fine writers who have taught at Writers Circle in Hayesville NC. In 2016, Steven Harvey was one of our instructors. He also teaches an MFA program at Ashland College. Tara Lynne Groth taught a class on using social media for writers.

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So happy to have you reading this post, Leave a comment if you wish. We love to hear from you. We have a contact form to make it easy to email me.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Claire Cook writes about publishing and becoming an Indie Author.

If you write novels and plan to publish novels, I advise you to read this post on Jane Friedman's site. It is by Claire Cook, author of Must Love Dogs and many other books. I met Claire at the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference in Blue Ridge Georgia a few years ago. She has built her readership mostly on Twitter, I think, and she is a popular author.

In this article, she explains how the traditional publishing world failed her and why she left her agent who had been with her for years. She is a hybrid author, having published traditionally and now she controls her publishing with her own company. She is an independent author.

Claire gives us a picture of what is happening in the world of publishing today and why many authors are choosing to self-publish even though they have been with traditional publishers for many years.

Friday, November 11, 2016

Staci Lynn Bell and Glenda Council Beall are featured readers at the John C. Campbell Folk School on Wednesday evening, November 16, 7:00 p.m. in the living room at the Keith House. The Folk School is located in Brasstown, NC in Clay County.

Staci Lynn Bell

It is always an honor to be invited to read at the Folk School. As a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network-West, a program of the state organization, NCWN, I have read there many times over the years. Students from all over the world attend classes at the folk school where they learn crafts of all kinds and where a writing program was added to the curriculum about 20 years ago.

Thanks to that writing program where Nancy Simpson was writer in residence for a number of years, my education in writing was begun there. I went on to take as many workshops and attend as many conferences as possible to enhance my knowledge and skills.

Glenda Beall

The day I walked in as a teacher at JCCFS, was one of the highlights of my life.

Reading with me on Wednesday evening, November 16, is an up and coming poet and writer, Staci Lynn Bell, a Chicago native who attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She was a radio and TV personality in Florida for twenty-five years before moving to the mountains of North Carolina.

Staci writes stories and poems that tug at the heartstrings. Her passion is dogs and she writes about them and about wolves as well as human relationships.

Staci has published in a number of anthologies and her poetry has appeared in Wild Goose Poetry Review. She has a poem in the new Kakalak 2016 anthology of North Carolina poets which will be out the end of this year.

Staci and I would love for you to come to our reading if you are in this area. It is free and the public is invited. I promise you will not be bored.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Callaghan is a young woman singer from the UK who has a
voice that reminds me of singers like Emmy Lou Harris back in the sixties.

Callaghan, that is the only name she uses, held a concert in Asheville recently
in a very small venue, Altamont theater. She plays piano and guitar but it is
her voice that is haunting. Her lyrics are like poetry.

She writes her own songs and they are based on her
life, her thoughts and ideas. Some are
uplifting tunes about enjoying life as it is today. She also wrote a sweet song for her nephew, Noah.

"We are all, right now, writing a story which will
one day fascinate someone," Callaghan says. "The way we live, the
decisions we make, and the moments of hope, grief and happiness which punctuate
all our lives will one day make someone stop, think and wonder. All of us are
writing our own 'history of now.’”

Most of my writing is autobiographical and I teach
memoir writing, so I agree with her. Every life is unique and each of us has a
story. She sings her stories. I write mine as poetry or personal essays.

My sister and brother-in-law, Gay and Stu, and I had no
idea what to expect when we paid for our
tickets. We heard a little bit of a song by Callaghan online and decided her
show sounded better than anything else in Asheville on a Thursday evening. She
was accompanied by Mike Gallagher who played electric guitar and bass
with his foot. I think he used a synthesizer.

We learned that this tall beautiful woman with long
dark hair came to Atlanta to record an album—and she stayed. Now she tours all
over the states and has made several albums.

We were so impressed with her music and her
personality, we plan to go see her again when she appears at Red Clay Music
Foundry in Duluth, GA, Saturday, January 7th, 2017 at 8:00 pm for Callaghan's Birthday Show.

This songLOST
(Callaghan)
is about losing someone you love. It could be my song.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

I sat on plastic covered benches waiting for word on my sister's little dog, Smokie, who had quickly become very, very sick that afternoon. When her regular vet's receptionist told me they could not see her until the next afternoon, I rushed her to the emergency animal hospital. (Just a word of warning. If you have to do this, bring lots and lots of money.)

After the doctor had spent an hour examining Smokie, he came out and told me it would take a while to do lab work and diagnose her.

I sat and listened to Bill Clinton speak on TV. A noisy family arrived with their dog that had been bitten by a copperhead snake. They had just moved to the area and were immigrants from the far east. The children spoke English fluently, but the father spoke with a heavy accent.

While he cut tall grass that afternoon, he disturbed a snake, and the dog attacked it. Bad idea. The father did not see the bite, but heard the dog yelp. He killed the snake and identified it.

The vet said he would keep the pet and watch it over night to see if he needed to give anti-venom. I thought if anyone was bitten by a snake, the cure was to give anti-venom.

The father spoke loud to be heard above the five kids who were jabbering like magpies. "I never saw where the snake bit him, but I heard him yelp.

The doctor said a copperhead bite was painful and not as deadly as a rattlesnake or some other snakes."

I never thought I'd get a lesson in snake bites while sitting in an animal hospital at 10 o'clock at night.

The receptionist, an older woman smiled and spoke in a gentle voice, understanding of my situation. We talked for a time. She didn't need to tell me she enjoyed her job. She had quit work a couple of years ago, but could not handle retirement. She came back to the pet hospital and works all night, from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m.. As I listened to her on the telephone and with people who came in with their pets, I wished our young people who work in a situation where they must communicate with the public could take lessons from this lovely woman.

I heard that her husband died when he was 49 years old and left her with two small children. She said she thought she was going to die, and without help from her family, she was not sure she would have made it. My heart hurt for her.

I picked up Smokie at 7:30 a.m. this morning. She still had bloody feces and I was given a bag full of fluids for her regular doctor to continue her care. I was told to take her directly there where her records are in their files. The Emergency Hospital FAXED a report.

I arrived at the vet's office before it opened. I stood there holding the little Schnauzer in a blanket in my arms. When the doors opened at 8:00 the young woman behind the desk told me the veterinarian would not see her until later because I didn't have an appointment for the morning.

"Would you like to leave her with us?" She asked.

"I was told by the people at the emergency hospital to bring her here now and they would FAX her records over. Do you have her records?"

"Oh, let me see." She pulled some papers off a machine and read them as if she wasn't sure what they were.

"Is this Smokie?"

"Yes," I said, tired from having climbed a long ramp carrying Smokie to get to the door. No one offered to help.

I was shown to a room and after talking to another young woman who put notes into her computer, Smokie was taken from me. I asked to speak to the doctor, but was told she was not available. I was told that I would be called later.

I wish the older woman at the ER could take the first young woman and give her some lessons in how to behave to a client, how to communicate with a caring attitude, and how to recognize when an older person is in distress.

I would hire a receptionist with people skills to represent the face of the business. I never met the veterinarian, but her staff did not make a good impression. I pray that she is a good doctor and that Smokie will get all the help she needs. Later:I was called by one of the techs to pick up Smokie that afternoon. I still did not see the veterinarian or even get a call from her. Thankfully, by the time my sister and brother-in-law got home from their vacation, Smokie was doing fine. After they heard my story, Gay and Stu sought another doctor for their dogs, one they feel is caring and understands the owners as well as the pets. And - they like the staff.What do you look for in a doctor's office staff, for you or for your pet?

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